React
by autumn midnights
Summary: Scorpius tells his mother that he's dating Rose Weasley. Oneshot, rated K. Mentions of Scorpius/Rose and Astoria/Draco.


Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

For the Fanfiction Tournament (Round Two) over on HPFC.

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Scorpius lightly knocked on his parents' bedroom door. "Mum? Are you in there?"

"Yes. The door's open." Since he didn't hear her footsteps, or any indication that she was coming to open it, Scorpius pushed it open and entered the room. His mother was sitting on the bed, a book open on her lap. When he came in, she closed the book, setting it on the bedside table. "Is there something you needed?"

"I-" Scorpius paused. He didn't really want to have this conversation at all, even though he knew that his mother would be all right with it. He and Rose had discussed it already, and they had come to the conclusion that out of all four parents, Astoria would be the most accepting. "Can I sit down?"

"Of course." She patted the spot next to her, just like she had done when Scorpius was little and wanted to cuddle up next to her. "Did you want to talk to me about something?"

"Er, yes," he replied as he sat down, wishing that he could shut the door without being obvious. He definitely didn't want his father to overhear; that would completely ruin the plan that he had worked out with Rose. "Where's Dad?" he asked instead.

"He's visiting somebody," Astoria replied. "He won't be back for another two hours or so."

Trying not to let relief show in his voice, Scorpius said, "Oh." There was another hesitation, and then he finally worked up the courage to say what he had come in to say. "I'm dating somebody."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Astoria smiled happily. "How long has it been?"

"Since April," he said, "so about eight months. She's in my year," he added, answering the question that Astoria probably had been about to ask.

"And I'm guessing she's not in Slytherin," Astoria said calmly, reaching over to the bedside table and grabbing a comb. She ran it through her light brown hair as Scorpius's mouth dropped open.

"How did you know?" he demanded.

"You obviously didn't want to tell your father," she answered matter-of-factly. "You kept looking at the door, you asked where he was, and you sounded relieved when I said that he wouldn't be back for a while. Not to mention that you came directly to me and not both of us; I can assume, then, that it's somebody that Draco wouldn't approve of, which generally means a non-Slytherin."

_No wonder she almost became a Ravenclaw, _Scorpius thought. It certainly wasn't the first time that Astoria had been intelligently observant and deductive; he hadn't been surprised, therefore, when she had offhandedly mentioned a couple of years ago that she had almost been Sorted into Ravenclaw. "You're right," he admitted slowly. "She's not a Slytherin. She's in Ravenclaw."

Astoria nodded as she set the comb back on the bedside table. "So, who's the lucky girl? Have I heard of her?"

He took a deep breath, gearing himself up for responding. It was still strange to tell her that he was dating somebody; he still didn't know what her reaction would be. He just knew that she wouldn't kick him out of the house, like he was afraid his father would do. "Rose Weasley," he said, his voice little more than a murmur.

She grinned. "All right, I can see why you didn't want to tell your father. Which one is she? There's so many Weasleys running about now, I can't keep track of them all."

"She's the daughter of Ron and Hermione Weasley," Scorpius explained.

"Ah, yes, I think I've seen her at Platform 9 and 3/4 a couple of times."

"So...you're fine with me dating her?"

"Of course!" Astoria ruffled his hair like she used to do when he was seven; just as he had then, he tried to duck out of the way. Of course, there wasn't anywhere to go, since both of them were sitting on the same bed. "You should know by now that I'm not prejudiced against somebody because of their blood status. Or because of their family." She smiled at him. "Am I the first person you've told?"

"Sort of," Scorpius answered. "Rose's cousin Lily knows. Lily's the Weasley-Potter who's in Slytherin, and her and I are friendly. She got me to admit it because she got it into her head that Rose and I would make a good couple, and I admitted we were dating to shut her up. But we haven't told Rose's family or anything like that. Rose thinks her father would curse me and kick her out of the house, and I don't think Dad would react very well either, so we wanted to wait to tell them."

"I'll help convince your dad, if you'd like," Astoria offered. "You know I can get him to see sense sometimes."

"I don't plan to tell him - and Rose doesn't want to tell her father - until we're both out of Hogwarts. Then we're officially adults. I know we're of age now, but we're still in school. But maybe you could just...I don't know, kind of introduce the idea? Not of me dating Rose specifically, but of me dating someone who isn't a pureblood Slytherin."

"All right," she answered, nodding. "I'll make sure to do that soon. I'm glad you felt that you could come to me, Scorpius."

He shrugged. "I knew you'd react fine."

"I always will," she promised, "no matter what. Even if you end up marrying Rose, I'll be fine with it."

A grin crept across his face. "Good to know."

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**Wow, I've actually written two K-rated pieces in the same month...that's rare for me, since I have a habit of being a bit inappropriate in my stories. Anyway. Um, this is a oneshot and will not be continued, just so you all know :) Thanks for reading!**


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